lightning rods

[ning]

[[ ]] Careful. Its a very short event. The fractional second fusing current of 3/4" copper is bound to be extremely high - perhaps ~the Meg-Amp range.

Just curious, but is the lightning rod setup expected to come out of this completely unscathed, or is the idea that you may destroy part of it, but your house didn't burn down instead?

(edit: found this interesting explanation for why the wire isn't destroyed)

 

[SPYDERLK]

The latter of course. But durability is always an issue.You dont want a couple pounds of red hot copper on an asphalt roof.

 

[check]

We were once visiting friends that had a ceiling lamp hanging.
During an electric storm we all observed a bright streak of lightning flash its way down that ceiling fixture followed by the room going dark.
Scary!

It was kind of like that when the lightning struck the power pole 100 feet or so away. The light at the very top of our college living room seem to do something and I don’t know what it was. But of course the big bang came immediately after and then the power went out.

By the way, I have been struck by lightning! I was at a resort in Quebec, and our room had a One bedroom plus loft. I was sleeping in the loft, and I found out later that the building had a metal roof. I woke up in the night with a bit of a zap and I found out the next day that lightning had struck the tennis court, about 100 feet away! Freaky.

 

[check]

We were once visiting friends that had a ceiling lamp hanging.
During an electric storm we all observed a bright streak of lightning flash its way down that ceiling fixture followed by the room going dark.
Scary!

It was kind of like that when the lightning struck the power pole 100 feet or so away from our cottage this Summer. The light at the very top of our cottage living room seemed to do something and I don’t know what it was. But of course the big bang came immediately after and then the power went out.

By the way, I have been struck by lightning! I was at a resort in Quebec (at Lac Morency), and our room had a One bedroom plus loft. I was sleeping in the loft near the ceiling, and I found out later that the building had a metal roof. I woke up in the night with a bit of a zap and I found out the next day that lightning had struck the tennis court, about 100 feet away! Freaky.

 

[CobyRupert]

You clearly don't understand.

The pointed rod really does attract the local static charge. Just as scooting your stocking feet on carpet then spark jumps between your fingertip to the doorknob.

There is no way skinny lightning rods will withstand a direct strike. However if one disconnects the grounding wire leaving a gap up to 1" then watches when the wind blows one would see arcing across the gap. Perhaps you would call those "lightning strikes"? Not really coming from the sky any more than the spark from your finger.

By discharging the static on one's building one makes adjacent trees and structures more attractive than one's protected building. The difference in electric potential is greater, until there is sufficient voltage to break down the insulation of the distance between earth and sky. A bit of water in the air reduces the resistance.

I think I understand that you are arguing the Lightning Dissipation Theory, while I favor the Lightning Diversion Theory.

https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/65825/does-a-lightning-rod-prevent-lightning-strikes

 

[Frankenkubota]

God doesn't like golf.

only god can hit a 1 iron

 

[Frankenkubota]

That’s what you get for poking electrical sockets with a knife…..
NOW YOUR A CONDUIT FOR LIGHTNING

years ago the guy who held the record for surviving the most lightening strikes was a park ranger guy in the blue ridge area.

i don't remember how many times he got hit but it was many.

 

[sunandsand]

"Conduit for lightning . . ."


Years ago I taught in a trade school - motorcycle mechanics - and since I was the only instructor who knew anything about electrics, that's what I got to teach.

We had Simpson multimeters, rotary dial type to select the function. The test leads used to have alligator clips on them but the clips had been long stolen for "other uses", so we had straightened paper clips instead. With a 12 volt system on a motorcycle, you couldn't even get a tickle.

One fine day, I am talking about the range switch. "Set the range to a higher voltage than you expect, that way you won't blow the meter. For our uses, set the range to 25 volts because we are measuring about twelve volts."

Turn to blackboard and start scribbling . . . hand goes up "So if I set the range correctly, I can measure the voltage in the wall socket?"

"Yep."

Then I realize what he just said, and turn around to see a guy with a bare paper clip in each hand, kneeling down, and preparing to stick them into the wall socket.

"STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Boy wonder stopped and looks at me completely innocently "What's the matter?"

Darwin got the day off . . . just.

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[CobyRupert]

^ Maybe he was the same guy who stole the roa.., err..alligator clips for “other uses”.

 

[PILOON]

At one time the phone co used a fuse of sorts to absorb lightening to protect users.
Where I live we had many strikes and I convinced the tech to leave me a supply as I ended up doin their job. (still have a bunch)
Later on they used a diode of some kind and it has been years since we've had phone problems.

LOL, was browsing in my tool box and found a bunch of the old 'fuses' and that is what brought on this reply.

 

[fishdrivel]

I'm under the impression that very dry ground is a poor conductor and therefore a poor electrical ground (thus why electric fences don't work well when the ground gets really dry unless you're expecting the fence to zap between the hot wire and part of the fence instead of the ground).

My ground here is bone dry two feet down in the summer, but when you pound a rod down deeper you start getting a decent year-round ground.

I guess the ground ring or ground-in-a-trench works because there's just so much more ground contact that it makes up for the higher resistivity of the potentially drier soil?

Interesting related article: https://www.ecmweb.com/content/article/20892049/achieving-an-acceptable-ground-in-poor-soil

Correct. In military enviroment, all of our grounds had to be tested and certified yearly.
Even when you pound a 10' ground rod in they do not always pass.
Now if you are not grounding a $125 million F-35 than you might not have to worry but if you are depending on lightning protection I might rather have ground rods and test their function.